ASPEN — Chris Del Bosco was looking for a contract, not a cause. But in an unlikely place, the reigning X Games skicross champion from Vail found both.

Consider it the evolution of one of Colorado’s most complicated athletes, a raw talent with a tumultuous past who finally saw the light. Little did he know that it would be powered by the sun.

Del Bosco, 28, has made a name for himself in a variety of ways through the years, most recently as the recovering alcoholic who beat the odds to compete as a skicross racer in the 2010 Olympics for Canada, where he holds dual citizenship through his father. Prior to that, however, he was largely known for a string of poor decisions that cost him a spot on the U.S. Ski Team, a mountain bike national championship title and eventually almost his life.

Now he wants to be known as a guy who is giving something back.

“I’m trying to make a difference,” Del Bosco said Thursday as he prepared to defend his skier X title in qualifying rounds today. “I’ve always said that athletics, to me, are a pretty selfish quest. You’re always out for yourself, trying to win. Friends, family, girlfriends, everything has to kind of take a back seat if you want to be the best. It’s just how it is, really.”

“But I think athletes are in a position to do a lot more,” he added.

Here at Winter X 15, Del Bosco is introducing a new partnership with the Denver-based Nokero company, creators of the world’s only solar light bulb. He’s added a unique LED insignia to the front of his racing helmet and created a Web-based charity program known as “Ski 4 Light” (Nokero.com/ski4light), where fans can sign up to donate Nokero light bulbs to nomadic tribes in Africa. If he wins at the X Games on Sunday, the company will donate 1,000 solar bulbs to the Samburu tribe in Kenya through Denver-based nonprofit Bold Leaders.

What may seem at first blush an unusual alliance is rooted in desire. Desire to succeed coupled with desire to help others. It’s a founding principle of Nokero, and it’s a trait Del Bosco aspires to share.

“The switch went on when we first talked to Steve,” he said. “There was kind of an eye-opening instant where I was like, ‘Wow, this could be pretty big.’ “

The Steve of reference, Steve Katsaros, is an old family friend and the inventor of the solar light bulbs. He’s a big-idea guy hoping that an alliance between his small Denver-based company and the Vail-based skier can make a major difference worldwide.

“The last thing I was ever planning was to do something in the ski area, but the Del Boscos approached us and said they had a helmet sponsorship available,” Katsaros said. “My first reaction was, no, we’re too busy to get involved in something like this. But then we thought about it and came up with something relevant. The campaign of ‘giving back’ just worked out for us.”

By design, Nokero is not a charity. It’s paying for prominent placement on the reigning Skier X champion’s headgear as a form of international advertising. But the company is founded on the gift of light.

According to a United Nations report, up to 1.6 billion people live without electricity. That translates to roughly a quarter of the world burning fuel, primarily kerosene, for light after dark. More than a million people die each year in fuel-based lighting fires.

“Most people probably don’t know that 1.6 billion people live without electricity. We flip a switch and don’t even think about it, but for a lot of people, when it’s dark, it’s dark,” Del Bosco said. “Or you’re burning kerosene lamps and inhaling fumes, starting fires. But this product, the solar light bulb, it’s amazing for someone like that.”

The full-circle lesson of lending a helping hand to those in need is not lost on Del Bosco, who got a leg up through the sport of skicross and a large support group. In the depths of his alcohol abuse, he blacked out one night and was found in a ditch, unconscious, with a broken neck. Prior booze binges had landed him in jail, and positive marijuana tests had cost him his spot on the U.S. Ski Team along with the downhill mountain bike title.

But life has steadily improved since he got sober in 2006 and joined the formidable Canadian Ski Team as a skicross racer, narrowly missing a medal with a fourth-place finish in Vancouver.

“Once I finally figured it out that I had an issue and got back on track, I realized what an opportunity I had,” Del Bosco said. “I kind of wasted a bunch of opportunities when I was younger, and sometimes you don’t get another chance. So everything just kind of fell into place with this, and I just wanted to capitalize and make it happen.”

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